January 23, 2009

It’s wondrous to be outside ice skating on the park pond and to enjoy our beautiful town that is frosted in white after this week’s snowstorms. Curiosity beckoned as I was skating one night. How thick does the ice have to be for skating? Who tests the ice and how is it done?
“The ice has to be five-inches,” David Goldberg of the Pound Ridge Recreation Department said. “The Maintenance Department tests it with a long drill bit that has one-inch markings. As soon as the bit starts to break through the bottom of the ice—and you can feel it—you look at the markings and that gives the depth.”

Several areas of the ice are checked to make sure there is enough depth all around. At one of the last tests, the ice was 7.5 inches. Since the Zamboni is en vacance, many thanks to the thoughtful townsfolk who shovel off snow as they skate.

Word from the Detroit Auto Show is that there’s a new device in Mercedes Benz that will actually track eye fluttering movements to see if a driver is falling asleep at the wheel. If so, a coffee cup icon starts flashing. (If only we could develop a device for drivers going too fast on our windy country roads. Maybe the icon should be a flashing deer icon?)

With the historic election of President Barack Obama, many are taking stock of how far we have come as a nation since slavery was abolished in 1865. What many Americans do not know is that slavery is still thriving throughout the world and even right here in the United States. Pound Ridge resident Alison Boak, president and co-founder of the International Organization for Adolescents—an organization dedicated to improving the lives of young people by addressing critical and emerging issues affecting vulnerable adolescents around the world—will give an eye-opening presentation, “Human Trafficking: With Modern-Day Slavery.” Alison has been working globally on this problem for more than a decade and will share her experiences on what is surely to be a lively discussion. The presentation and reception, which are free and open to the public, take place on Tuesday, Jan. 27 from 7:30-9 p.m. Please Rsvp to the Library at 914-764-5085 if you intend to attend.

Our beloved Conant Hall sees everything from Garden Club flower shows, to aerobic classes, to theater productions, to last week’s Inauguration Ball, to this week’s long-awaited “Sixth Annual Pound Ridge Girl Scout Father/Daughter Dance.” On Saturday, Jan. 31 at 8 p.m., more than 99 Girl Scouts and their dads will descend upon the “Masquerade Ball” and whoop it up in the hamlet. The girls made masks for themselves and their fathers (or other special person) and will surely have a fun time.

Until Louise Paolicelli reinvigorated the tradition, there were no Girl Scout troops in town. (This was much to my daughter’s (okay, really my dismay since I was a long-time Girl Scout. Getting my sewing badge was a snap and learning how to bathe a plastic doll at the local Red Cross was a natural for me. Could this have been for my mother badge?) Today we have nearly 80 girls who participate in the town’s 10 Girl Scout troops.

Seventeen-year-old singer, soulful-songwriter-Pound Ridger Hillary Johnson is a little bit Billy Joel, Coldplay, Carole King, The Counting Crows, Dave Matthews Band, James Taylor, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Alanis Morissette, Sarah McLachlan, Stevie Wonder, U2, The Eagles, Eric Clapton, Elton John, The Beatles, and Frou Frou. One thing we know for sure is that Hillary is the real deal. Her next performance is on Wed, Jan. 21 at 8 p.m. at The Bitter End in Greenwich Village. (For more info, go bitterend.com.) And if you can’t get into the city to hear Hillary, go to myspace.com/hillaryjohnson. Check out one of her latest recordings, “Breakdown” See the counter in the right column? Of the 3,190 plays, I think I’m at least 25. I know I might be skewing the tally, but the song is worth listening to again and again.

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